LIVE in Barnsley Into Its Third Year

LIVE in Barnsley, the town’s first metropolitan free music festival that first took place in June 2013, is now into its third year.

This year’s LIVE in Barnsley FREE Music Festival takes place on Saturday 20 June 2015

Applications for bands wishing to play at this years festival opened last Friday and the organisers were overwhelmed with the response. Organiser Dave Pearsall told us, “We had over 300 bands apply in the first 48 hours, which is amazing. To put it in perspective, we had just over 300 bands in total apply for the first festival in 2013. It’s great to see even more new bands from Barnsley applying. It has been sad to see festival favourites like Mynas, Demographic and Hitomi splitting up but we’re really excited at the new projects that are springing up out of those bands.”

The Torn, from Doncaster, came into being in 2008 and comprise of Nick Berry (Lead Guitar and backing vocals), Tim Taylor (Bass Guitar) Ben Mullins (Drums) and Damian Dalton Smith (Lead Vocals, Rythm Guitar). Damian is actually the brother of well known actress, Sheridan Smith, who recently won a National Television Award for her amazing performance in the ITV docudrama, Cilla, about the early life and times of Cilla Black. You may also have seen Damian appear on the BBC’s The Voice a couple of weeks ago but unfortunately he lost his voice on the day and struggled to hold it together on the night of the live performance in front of judges Tom Jones, Rita Ora, Will I Am and Ricky from Kaiser Chiefs. Undettered Damian vowed to continue singing with The Torn.

The band’s musical journey so far has seen them perform across the UK at many well known venues alongside the likes of The Mystery Jets, Reverend and the Makers, The Bluetones, The Specials and Tom Hingley (ex-Inspiral Carpets). Their style of indie rock has won many followers, gained airplay/interviews on several local radio stations including some brief TV appearances.

The band release their new single, ‘Take It’, on 9th March through Sound Hub Records.

Bands wishing to apply for this years festival go to www.liveinbarnsley.co.uk and apply online.